Press Release

Tides of Sand and Steel is an exhibition by ADL, a research-based collective that uses video and installation practices to engage with site-specific socio-political concerns. The current exhibition was developed during site visits in and around frontline communities impacted by desertification in China’s interior, specifically Ningxia and Hebei Provinces. Throughout the research process the artists investigated state and non-state initiatives in ecology remediation and extractive economies of the desert. This exhibition operates at the intersection of human geography and storytelling, unpacking the narrativization of disaster ecologies and the historicization of resilience through environmental management.

With a criticality towards the role of journalistic, museological, and scientific practices, this exhibition follows a self-reflective research methodology and engages with the infrastructure and logistics of environmental remediation, and the reification of anti-desertification programs. Composed of large-scale video installations, critical reconstructions, displays, and affective engagements, Tides of Sand and Steel intersects a rigorous material engagement with an articulation of sublime encounter with moving landscapes.